To the Roots

T.K. McNeil

The term “going digital” can have some odd associations. Though it really only means content stored on a computerized device, there can be some peculiar assumptions made about what digital content is and should be. While there have been new genres and formats created or at least inspired by the new, digital infrastructure (blogs, vlogs, podcasting etc.), there is also a good deal of content in traditional styles that are available mostly, if not exclusively, online. 

In such cases, the web being used as a promotional tool as opposed to the platform itself. Much like when music videos were broadcast on traditional television to promote artists, while live performances and records were the primary commodity. 

An element that stands out in the music currently available online, is how staunchly traditional some of it is. At times to the point of the anachronistic. There are the intentionally jocular “Pirate Metal” stylings of Alestorm, which are basically high-powered sea-shanties, and the partially a Capella pieces of Ye Banished Privateers, some of which are literal sea-shanties.

On the darker end there is Arkona who blend Russian Folk music and Death Metal in a counter-intuitive combination on par with peanut butter and chocolate. Even deeper into the roots is Patty Gurdy. Primarily the hurdy-gurdyist and second vocalist for the 6-piece German Folk Metal band Storm Seeker (who also include a keyboardist and cellist), Ms. Gurdy also has a successful online presence on YouTube with a combination of instruction videos on the hurdy-gurdy as well as solo performances and collaborations with other YouTube musicians and members of her band, such as the acoustic version of the band’s song “The Longing” she did with the band's cellist. 

There are also acts such as Faun. With a name referring to a mythical creature and using instruments that pre-date electricity by hundreds of years, all manner of descriptors can, and have, been used for their music, some of them more accurate than others. Though the fact is, the style of music they tend to do is so old that it pre-date the concept of genre itself. There is also a strong element of pre-Christian European paganism in the band's themes, instrumentation and visuals which point to a firmly Medivalist orientation. 

So, perhaps the web is not destroying traditional art forms, as many have claimed, so much as helping them spread and flourish. Switch they have always found a way to do. A large part of the reason they have lasted this long.